The Day After Freeze

Finished with dry apples. I called Robert this morning to ask some questions about the millers/moths that were in house two.  Shane and Duston thought that they were eating the leaves of the hemp plants.  He said that the millers don't have the ability to chew.  The caterpillars do the eating.  He thought that slugs were eating the plant's leaves.  He told me to lift up the hemp bag and see if any were under the bag.  We found three.

I started to clean Frank Williams' sprayer.  I used it to put a white wash on the greenhouses.  When if finished using it early this spring I left it between house two and three.  It was there until a couple of days ago when I moved it into house three.  The water had evaporated from the tank.  It left about an inch of white chalky like residue at the bottom of the tank.

Frank wanted to use the sprayer to spray his lawn.  They will be coming here soon to get it.  It would be bad on my part to send it home in the condition it was in.  I cleaned the tank,  the wand, and most of the connecting hoses.  It took me most of the morning and some of the afternoon.

I was going to dig potatoes after lunch.  Carol wanted to dig them before lunch.  It took us about forty-five minutes to dig them.  Two of the tubs contain red Pontiac and the other one is Yukon gold potatoes.  

Greenhouse two is nearly ready for the rest of the hemp plants.   They will fit on the twelve foot wide weed barrier.

One of the signs of fall is the leaves that lay on the lawn.

I moved all the hoses that were left on the lawn out to the garden.  They will be out of the way and I will bring them back in the spring.


Comments and questions are welcome.

today

A daily ritual is to shred papers.  I did that until the shredder got too hot and shut off.  I came back later and did more shredding, and then a couple more times.  I may mention this in the next posting, but not how many times I shredded.

I have a lot of lettuce plants that are ready to be transplanted.  There is not room in house two to transplant all of them.  I am considering house six. They will not be heated in house six. 

 I transplanted fifteen sweet corn plants on the north end of bed six.

The geranium plants are doing well.  The true leaves are beginning to grow. They seem to change every day.

I have what I call a rough finish of the shredder table.  I did some sanding and counter sinking  the screws.

The bench in the above picture is upside down to show the rails look from the under side.

This shows how the 1x2 furring strip board are glued together to make a strong table leg.  This same concept can be used in benches and larger tables.

The table is laying on its side to show how the legs are attached to the rails.

 We passed out the rest of the Carmel puffs today.  Going to make another batch tomorrow.

We make them with the corn pops.

I have been watering these hot pepper plants since last May.  No one is using them, so I pulled them up/

They really have quite a root system.

 I started another wire for the tomato plants.  It is easy to pull them tight with the turnbuckle.  I can also tighten the "J" bolt.

 I decided a couple of days ago to blow off the leaves that are on the lawn.  There is a couple of small clumps of snow.  All of my extension cords are being used for the Christmas lights.  I found a couple that were pretty twisted.

 I blew the leaves on the east lawn to both sides.  They were pretty wet and took more effort to move them, but with the help of three extension cords I was able to get it done.

I did the same on the south lawn.

This the winter look of the Perityle stansbury, Rock Daisy.

kohlrabi was eaten by the chickens.  They really love them.  They peck and peck cleaned out the interior of the vegetable.  Picture below show more of the interior, but is pretty fuzzy.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Straw Bails over Twenty Years Old

The above photo represents lunch.  The yellow is a winter squash.  Above it is a little portions of  meatloaf.  On the left is a fresh tomato.  It was good.  I melted some butter for the squash.

The are several large bails of wild rye that were there long before we moved to Holden.  I got permission from Richard Christianson to put them on our garden.  I back the truck to it and loaded the truck.

I backed the truck on the driveway and filled the wheelbarrow numerous times and put them on the garden.  There are enough bails for many more loads.

The photo above shows the wild rye.  I am getting quite a wide row there.  I hope to do some of our planting there.  

I filled the tarp twice with leaves and carried them to the garden.

Here the leaves are covering the wild rye.  I do this to help keep the straw from drying out during the winter.

Late this afternoon we drove to the Bishop's storehouse in Fillmore for honey, chocolate drink mixes, and peanut butter.  We will use them for Christmas presents for our grandkids.


Comments and questions are welcome.

Removing Dead Tomato Plants House Six

Carol suggested that I remove the to big tubs of purple fountain grass that was on each side steps on the front porch.  I wasn't going to do that because I had a couple of other things to do.  I quickly changed my mind.  I put them on the cart and hauled out to the compost pile.  I took one of them out and through it on the pile.  I couldn't get the other one out.  I then thought that I should cut them down and take them to house two and see if the would come back to life.  There were lot of green stems.

I then went to house six and began to remove the tomato plants.  I started on the south side of the west end.  There were all tangled up.  I pulled one partially out and removed the tomato clips and the counter weight.  Some were large nails and other were smaller type nail.  I continued until elven.

I began raking the leaves that were on the lawn.  Some areas were really thick with leaves and other arears there were not leaves.  I filled the tarp about five times.  I dumped one in the iris garden and two in the corn garden and one in the no till garden.

By now it was time for lunch.  As soon as lunch was over I stated to mow the lawn.  I filled the catcher up about seven times and dumped them in various places in the garden. One place was in the melon garden where I dumped three times.

As soon as I finished the lawn we drove to Fillmore for some groceries.  I got me a ten inch saw blade that had 86 teeth.  On the way home we stopped at the Ice Burg to get an ice cream cone.  We stopped there a couple of weeks ago for ice cream.  I gave her the money and she said that I didn't need to pay.  The same thing happened again today.  I ordered the ice cream and put the money on the counter.  She was already getting the cones.  Another clerk came and I told him that I was being served but he could take the money.  Just the other clerk handed me the ice cream.  I had a cone in each hand.  They handed the money back and put it between my two fingers.  he came out to help me out the door.  So strange.

As soon as we got home I unpacked the saw blade and put it on the saw.  I cut a few pieces of wood and was so surprised at the quality of the cut.  There was no tear out and the cut was so smooth.  I wonder why I didn't get a new blade much earlier.  I have done a bunch of projects that show the blade tear out.  The little blocks are lying against the blade.  The saw is off.

When we got home I went back to work in house six.  The picture below is taken from the east end of house six.

Below.  I have removed a lot of tomato plants. It went quite fast in site of the twine, the clips, and the counter weight.  I think I could get two rows done in about five hours.

I finished removing all the pole beans and the four section of steel pipe.  There are a few posts in the ground that I need to pull up.

The two hog panels wired together were badly bent.  I cut the wires and pulled the east one up on its edge.  I then pulled the west one up on its edge.  The job of straitening up the panels is for another day.

Comments and questions are welcomed.